POT POLICY

Court Has Given Cities Notice That They Can No Longer Regulate
Medical Marijuana Sales, So It's Past Time to Ban Dispensaries

When California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, their intent
was to provide compassionate care to patients by legalizing the use
of marijuana to ease pain from illnesses such as cancer.

Prop. 215 was never meant to give the green light to the hundreds of
profit-making dispensaries that have cropped up in the years since to
sell marijuana to people who don't need it. But intent and reality
collided, and the result has been a muddled mess for the cities, such
as Los Angeles and Long Beach, that tried to accommodate both
dispensaries and the needs of citizens.

It has been a perilous road that has now come to a cliff, and Long
Beach and Los Angeles should take a step back before they plunge over.

The two cities are contemplating reversing years of policy and
banning dispensaries altogether. It's not only the right choice -
it's the only responsible choice.

No matter how the members of the L.A. and Long Beach city councils
feel about medical marijuana use, they must face the reality that a
state court has ruled that while a city can ban marijuana outlets, it
can't regulate them, which both cities have tried to do. The
rationale is that cities can't regulate a business that violates federal law.

Further, a ban on dispensaries won't negate Prop. 215 - legitimate
medical marijuana patients still have the right to grow their own.

L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents Eagle Rock, which
has more than its share of medpot dispensaries, is leading the call
for a ban in Los Angeles. He maintains that illegal dispensaries are
opening daily, some close to schools and parks. That proposal was
heard by the council's Public Safety Committee on Friday and is
headed for the Planning Commission and City Council in coming weeks.

In Long Beach, the City Council is scheduled to consider the fate of
its medpot ordinance at its meeting Tuesday. Long Beach Mayor Bob
Foster and City Attorney Bob Shannon believe that the city has no
choice but to shut down all dispensaries. He's right.

Some critics ask, why now? There's good reason. Last fall an appeals
court judge ruled in the case of Pack v. Long Beach that the city
(and, by extension, all California cities) cannot limit or regulate
dispensaries. Both Long Beach officials and marijuana advocates have
taken their argument to the state Supreme Court, but it's unclear
whether the high court will hear the case and, if so, what the outcome will be.

In the meantime the court of appeal ruling throws wide open the door
to the unchecked spread of dispensaries unless the two cities act
soon. If there's no ban, Long Beach and Los Angeles could be overrun
by the medpot outlets that are magnets for crime and gangsters.

The four U.S. attorneys in California and the state attorney general,
Kamala Harris, rightly say gangs and gangsters are profiting from the
sale of marijuana. Like Prohibition, which had odd twists about what
was banned liquor and what was medicine, the definition of medical
marijuana has been blurred. The result, as one city official
characterized it, is a sort of Wild West, where dispensaries crop up
whenever and wherever a storefront becomes available. It's been a
tremendous drain on law enforcement resources.

In the words of Harris, "non-binding guidelines will not solve our
problems - state law itself needs to be reformed, simplified and improved."

We agree. It's time for cities to step back from the perils of
medical marijuana dispensaries, and let the state define the terms of
Prop. 215. It's time to tame the Wild West.